Correlated courses in woodwork and mechanical drawing

by Ira Samuel Griffith

In the solving of these problems a carefully made freehand, dimensioned working drawing is first required. This, when correct, is followed with a mechanical drawing, full size and without dimensions. It will be noted that no attempt has been made heretofore to have the pupils make freehand working drawings or sketches. It has been the author’s experience that better results are obtained by introducing the freehand drawings after the pupil has been taught and has had experience in the exactness of the mechanical drawing.

The working drawings of this grade introduce no new principles but give opportunity for practice in more difficult combinations of elements. They provide opportunity for acquiring greater facility in handling the instruments which results in drawings that are to be used in the shops. While the drawings are copied from plates, as in the seventh grade, the pupil is permitted to modify the designs within certain limitations, with one problem in original design, structural and decorative.

In high school drawing more time is allowed and the drawing becomes more of a subject in itself, requiring more and deeper thought on the part of the pupil. The high school drawing course is complete in itself. The first four groups are given mainly as problems in inking but they furnish a review of that part of the eighth grade drawing incidentally. They also furnish a familiar starting point for the high school work and make of the high school course a complete whole. High school drawing is best given by a specialist.

As in the eighth grade, these problems are to be solved and drawn freehand with dimensions. Afterward they are drawn mechanically and inked. The inking of problems is specified in only the first four groups in the outline for drawing. The amount of inking to be done thereafter will best be determined by the instructor. Too much inking has a tendency to result in careless penciling. It is for the instructor to determine when his class is doing its best in both penciling and inking. The problems of these latter groups are well calculated to necessitate thought and study and the instructor will do well to make much of this part of the subject.

The making of high school working drawings is placed early in the course that they may be ready to use in the shop by the time the exercises in joint work preparatory to their application, are completed. These working drawings are to be original as far as possible. Plates of suitable projects are to be provided to give the necessary starting points.

CHAPTER IV.
SHOP ORGANIZATION

1. Location of Shops.

Shops for high school pupils will be located in or near the high school building. A special effort should be made to have both wood shop and drawing room placed in suitable environment. Where manual training has been introduced into high schools with buildings planned for academic work only, it has been the custom to place manual training in the basement and drawing in the attic, these being the only places available for subjects that had yet to prove their worth. Even today, when it is a well established fact that handwork as a part of our educational course has not only proven its worth but is prophesied a greater place in our educational scheme in the form of industrial training, some school authorities not only place shops in basements of old buildings but plan new buildings with basement shops. This is an economy with nothing to justify it but tradition.

In many cities the custom of building basements high out of the ground serves to mitigate some of the evils, by giving a fair degree of light and ventilation. Any basement, however, that is formed with a cement floor directly on the ground will be damp in the spring and fall when the heating apparatus ceases to force warm air thru the rooms. The result upon tools, upon wood, and upon the health of those who must spend their time in such surroundings is not a matter of speculation.

Any subject to be taught to the best advantage must not only be a subject that will win the respect of the pupils but it must be given surroundings that will not tend to degrade it in the eyes of the immature student. Excellent work has been done in basement rooms and excellent discipline maintained under very adverse conditions but it has been in spite of these conditions and not because they do not influence the student unfavorably. In spite of the instructor’s best efforts to create a feeling of respect toward the basement shopwork similar to that entertained toward the academic work, pupils in going from the comfortably furnished rooms above, in which the decorator’s art has helped to make everything agreeable to the eye, unconsciously assume an attitude in their first conduct and deportment that places the shop instructor at a disadvantage.